I'm convinced that Illinois wouldn't have the budget deficit it has if it weren't powering the traffic lights it has every 25 yards... however, it was hard to be sassy being down there given the occassion that brought me. Lawyer Lindsey & Chef Carl, in town from Virginia, tied the knot in a charming little lodge in a warp speed ceremony... so enjoyable a day it was I don't even begrudge the fact I almost lost my fingers to frostbite during the portraits... though it was my own fault for declining Lindsey's kind offer to borrow her shawl.. I'm sure it will be much better in Jamaica which is where they're headed tomorrow...

So remember when I wrote that post on black and white images a few weeks ago and talked about seeing a predominance of them in wedding photography because of poor light? Well, as adorable as Lindsey & Carl's wedding was, this would have been a prime candidate for that...

The location for the ceremony was a quaint lodge in Spring Grove IL. Fresh snow fall, frigid temperatures and a late kick off meant we didn't get to use the great location, (but one can imagine what it would be like in summer or fall), yet for all the promise of the gardens, for the guests, the lodge was just as warm and welcoming. For the photographer, however, it was frought with problems.

I think the technical term is freakin' nightmare.

The cavernous, slanted cathedral ceilings of treated pine, replete with skylights and windows, in addition to recessed and uplit tungsten, some halogen and of course a fire, meant plenty of mixed light sources coming from high angles. None of those angles particularly favorable, and nothing particularly bright.

It made for some very tricky ambient shots, especially given how dark it was. Ultimately, I couldn't risk relying solely on high ISO and wide apertures, and had to break out the flash for only the second time in my ceremony career.

As I've explaiend before however, I am not a fan of nuking a ceremony, so it had to be mixed with ambient-only. When shooting from the side of the room with a wall of windows, it was fine to shoot naturally, and thankfully that was shooting into Lindsey's face. Shooting from the other side and stright down the hatch, I bounced from the tall ceilings and selected a high ISO to at least pull in some of the ambient for feel.

In addition, these guys had a lot of friends and family for such a cute little place, very little room to move, happily though, my growing penchant for shooting between and through items and people was more than satisfied. By the way, did I mention the ceremony was roughly 15 minutes long?

All in all though, I was appy with how it all went down. Happier still I was able to not have to revert to black and white completely.

This wedding was also time for a new technique (well, new to me, and I haven't seen it around) for the dance floor, that really was an accident. Rather than straight or bounced lighting for the dancefloor images, usually I combine a bunch of different styles... actually, I'll save that for the to-yet-be-written list.. but this one is new.

It's not earth-shattering, but it does have a subtle dynamicism to it...

...don't hate that I didn't write more on it.. I don't wanna blow my load given I usually stumble for non-shoot subjects.